my 50th post. and second quarter coupon statistics.

first things first id like to take a few minutes to blubber about how this is my fiftieth (FIFTIETH!) blog post. seriously. fifty posts. this is a really huge deal for me because, well, when i started, i didnt think that anyone would even read it and knowing me it wasnt going to last, given that im lazy and unmotivated and quit everything i start. so of all the people that are surprised that this little blog is still going (and that people other than my mom are reading it), i am definitely the most surprised. i wish i had something more exciting to say about this, but im really just still in disbelief that its even still going. maybe my 100th post will be more special. maybe. 

anyways, back to our regularly scheduled programming... 

as you may have noticed, today is july 1st, which means that i had to clean out all of my expired june coupons:

today also marks SIX MONTHS of tracking my grocery savings (you can read more about it here). now since ive recently had to make HUGE changes to my diet and how i shop (read more here and here) , i was really worried that i wouldnt  be able to stick to our budget, or that couponing would become a waste of time, or that id have to give up my little game of trying to beat my saving percentage high score. well, im happy to announce that NONE of those things happened!

obviously my new dietary restrictions mean that we now require some pretty expensive staples, and that were spending a LOT more money on produce than before, however were also not buying any processed/packaged foods (which are actually much more expensive than fresh foods) so things even out. ive also stopped stocking up on "extra" food, and just buying exactly what we need for the coming week, so after just a few weeks i managed to keep our $50 a week grocery budget in effect, and have managed to come in under budget a few times. while im not really using that many food coupons (most of them are for foods i cant eat), im still using LOTS of target coupons (and their new cartwheel app, its my new favorite) and hardly paying anything for our household/toiletry-type items (also ive been planning our trips a little better so we only have to go to target once every 2-3 weeks). and despite all the little changes ive made to trim down our grocery spending, im STILL making great savings percentages! 

so here are the numbers for this quarter: ive used $240.25 in actual coupons, and saved a total of $738 dollars (an average of 37% savings per transaction). so while this is a little less impressive than last time, i feel its also worth noting that i am consistently spending less than i was before. and my total cumulative savings for the year (less newspapers and printer ink)? $1481.82. seriously. i dont even know what id do if i hadnt learned how to shop this efficiently (thanks mom!), because let me tell you, we do NOT have that kind of money.